Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello. Welcome to my class. My name is Tasmin Hansmann. I'm an author, and I'm a freelance creative. You might already know me from my first Skillshare class,
Poetry for Beginners. I've been a writer all my life and so far I have
two books published. The first one being
The Anatomy of Waves, which is a poetry collection
all about the longing, the Azores Archipelago, my love for the ocean, and so much more. My second book, Welcome
Home Dear Soul, is a poetic and
counter with death. It is a conversation
beyond life. This class, we'll
focus on writing and creating art during a crisis. The words crisis, it
can be defined in a lot of different ways
from personal to global, but it is always something
that affects us very deeply. No matter if you are
in an emotional, personal crisis
after, for example, a heartbreak or while
healing from trauma, or if you are confronted
with a global crisis like a pandemic or
the climate crisis. This class is here to help you stay inspired
and actually work with the pain and with the conflicts to create
something beautiful out of it. Well, I will focus mostly on the writing
aspect of it all. If you are a different
artist, for example, a painter or musician, you can still take this class. You just need to adapt
the things that I say a little bit more to your
niche of making art. First, I will show you the benefits of
writing in general. Then we will dive deep into
the craft of how you can find inspiration despite
or through the crisis. Finally, we will
discuss the importance of your voice for
yourself and others. Let's get started.
2. Why write in a crisis: You might think that
during a crisis, art is the least
of our concerns. While, yes, it does
not help us survive on a physical level
like food or shelter, it still helps us with the mental and emotional
burden of it all. Art in whatever
shape or form can contribute to resilience,
and eventually recovery. Stories, poems, and other
art forms can give hope, even when everything
seems hopeless. Books can become a place to escape when reality
is too hard to bear, they can show the
beauty within chaos. Sometimes depending on
the type of writing, they also tell the story
of the present moment, documenting all facets
and perspectives from the brutality of life to the little miracles
among the darkness. This is why I have
created this course. We're currently in the middle
of multiple global crisis. A lot of us are also
affected by local crisis and personal emotional
crisis on top of it all, and the pressure is very high. Life, sometimes
it's very hard to enjoy at the moment and
that is completely okay. But it can also be seen
as an invitation to create something that
offers beauty and hope, or something that tackles
the harsh truths of reality. As the class project, I'm asking you to write
a little something, it can be a poem, it can be a full short story, it can just be a few thoughts, maybe an idea, maybe an outline, whatever it is that
you want to create, just write something
very small that is inspired by a crisis. This can be a personal
or a global crisis. If you are used to write more
about personal challenges, try to write about bigger
issues for this project. If you usually write
about the bigger things, try and focus on the obstacles in your own life,
for this project. Writing within a crisis can help both you as well as others, that is why I would
love to see you make a little project based
on the lessons of this class. Because we all need a little bit more
kindness in this world, especially when we
talk about crises. Please leave some
kindness, compassion, and love on the projects of
your classmates down below. I will also be down
there and I will comment on each and every
one of the projects. If you would like some
feedback on your project, please let me know and I
will offer this as well. See you there.
3. The Benefits of Writing: In this lesson, I would like to talk about the
benefits of writing, because writing actually has a lots of benefits. It is even scientifically
proven that writing on a regular basis
will increase your happiness, and I'm sure many
authors, and writers, and people who have journals
or gratitude journals, for example, will agree. The research has shown that especially
expressive writing. The type of writing where
you express your feelings and thoughts is
linked to happiness. For this, it doesn't matter
if it is fictional or poetic, if it's a diary, or something completely
out of the lines, it doesn't really matter
what type of writing it is. What is most important
is that you do it regularly and that it is an
expression of your soul. If you develop a writing
practice or writing habit of doing it every day
or multiple times per week, besides the mental benefits, it even has benefits for
your physical health, such as lower stress levels, a better immune system, and a better memory. Why is that? There are multiple reasons why writing
is beneficial for you. It helps you communicate
thoughts more clearly and bring
order to your mind, which allows you to talk
with others with more ease. Depending on the way you
write, if you, for example, write about hope
or about misery, the writing has different
effects on you. If you implement optimistic and hopeful
aspects in your writing, you are more grateful
for what you have. If you on the other hand write
more pessimistically and, for example, deal
a lot with misery, and pain, and chaos, and uncertainty in your writing, you are basically "complaining" about the current status quo or a potential
worst-case scenario. This complaining acts as a placebo effect for
getting satisfied. Therefore, you feel
relieved after writing. This implies that no matter
how you approach writing, if you write
something fictional, if you write something
non-fictional, if you write full of hope, and ideas, and solutions, or if you write about very
pessimistic thoughts, that all of it will help you
feel better in the long run. It also doesn't matter if you write about the crisis at hand, or if you write about
something completely different to just
distract your mind. Escapism is completely valid. Also, we all know that the harshest experiences
sometimes are the best stories. Like that embarrassing
thing that happened to you a
few years back. It was pretty bad
when it happened. But now it is a great
story that you love to talk with your friends
about so you can all have a good laugh. Crises are of course a bit
more serious and a bit more complex but the principle
is still the same. Crises are opportunities
for finding stories. If we take a closer
look at literature from the past or even
from the present moment, we can see that many, many of the big names have
been inspired by a crisis. Walt Whitman, for example, experienced the
American Civil War. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien
were affected by World War I. George Orwell was affected by the
Spanish Civil War. The huge book, The Book Thief, is based on World War II, as is the famous
Diary of Anne Frank, which is just that a
diary from a little girl. Frances Ellen
Watkins Harper wrote about the horrible
reality of slavery. If we look more into
the recent years, we for example,
have the Poppy War, which is a fantasy trilogy
and which is based on the Second Sino-Japanese
War, which was horrifying. If we look at Joan Didion, one of the most famous
writers out there, she deals a lot with the
topic of grief in her books. She even said, "Writing is the only way I've found
that I can be aggressive." She also said, "I'm totally
in control of this tiny, tiny world", which
shows you a lot on how she dealt with the
crisis in her life. Even the fluffy book, Eat Pray Love deals
with a midlife crisis. The famous non-fiction memoir, Know My Name by Chanel Miller, talks about sexual abuse
and how to survive it. When Breath Becomes Air
talks about cancer. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground talks about
indigenous struggles, and The Chief
Witness talks about the current genocide that
is happening in China. The book, The Soul of the World imagines a potential
apocalypse and how people from different
faiths can come together and find
a middle ground. In general, if we look to the bookshelves in
the bookstores, we will see more and more books that deal with the topics
like climate change. There was a whole
genre called CLI-FI, which is climate
science fiction. We also see books about
COVID, for example. Even in the Roman section, you will already find books
about the corona pandemic. These were all examples
from the book world. But if we look into the
world of music, for example, we will find just
as many examples, and if we look into
the world of art, we will also find
great examples. The first one that comes to
mind is Vincent van Gogh, who struggled with
severe depression and suicidal thoughts
all of his life and still created all of these masterpieces that we
all know until this very day, even if we're not maybe
deep into the art world. Today in the age
of social media, there are campaigns like
rewriting extinction, where comic artists
come together to talk about the loss of biodiversity
and climate change. You can see that arts of all
different kinds of forums can have an impact and can
be inspired by a crisis. We can summarize. Writing is beneficial
for your mental health, and if done regularly also
for your physical health. Crisis can be a source
of inspiration like so many great names
in literature and other forms of
art have shown. In the following lessons, we will have a look on how to find this kind of inspiration.
4. Types of Crisis: Before we look into
the actual craft of finding inspiration and
writing during the crisis, I first wanted to take a little look at the
different types of crisis that can
occur because this is important to distinguish. First, we have the
personal crisis. This is a crisis that
affects only you, or at least mostly you. Something that
makes you suffer on a mental and or emotional and sometimes even
physical level. This can be a heartbreak, a mental health
problem, a diagnosis, grief, or something that is causing you big amounts
of unnatural stress. A community crisis
is something that affects a community
so a group of people. This does not necessarily mean a local community,
although it can. But your family can be
seen as a community or a group of friends or other people you are
in community with. For example, when new laws
had been announced in 2021, that certain tattoo
colors would be forbidden in certain countries, the tattoo community
was affected even though they are not locally
bound or know each other. Another example would be
the indigenous people of America who are not one homogenous
community but that have to go through so many crisis as a whole and with latest edition being the discovery
of the graves of indigenous kids at old
residential schools. This, for example, is very much the example of a community crisis
because it affects a group of people no matter
if they're actually related, living close together or not. A local crisis can
be anything from a small town to your country
or even your continent. Examples for local crisis might be the wildfires in California, the floods in Germany, hurricane damage in Florida, or the desertification in certain parts of the
African continent. War, for example, is often a local crisis. Global crisis are things that
affect each and every one of us no matter where
we live or how we live. The COVID pandemic or climate change are prime
examples for this. But of course, local crisis or community crisis can be seen
in a bigger scale as well. While the deforestation
of the Amazon, for example, is a local crisis, it still affects us
all in a passive way and should be talked about
from both perspectives. No matter what type of
crisis you are facing. All of these types of crisis can be an inspiration
because they give us topics to write about and emotions that we
can work with from rage to help to finding those
hidden untold stories like, for example, the famous movie
and book hidden figures. They can also inspire you to escape into a completely
different world or to solve the problems at hand with magic in a
fantastical setting. Of course, it is also
completely okay to feel highly uninspired
during crisis. It is completely fine
if you are left with no desire to create because the pressure
is just too high. Please remember that this
is okay and it doesn't make you any less a
writer or an artist. But if you want to change that, try and flip the
perspective a little bit. I will talk more about how to
do that in my next lesson.
5. Finding Inspiration & Motivation: As I said at the end
of the last lesson, please be aware that if
you feel uninspired, that this is completely normal. Crisis can be very overwhelming and leave
you with no desire or no ideas to create anything that is hopeful or even
anything that is angry. Being bored helps you
be inspired as well, and healing can also inspire
you on your journey forward. Please take care of your
mental health first. If you are actually
taking a break but don't want to be completely
separated from your art, just use this time to grow. Educate yourself on
different writing tools, Read books or articles, listen to podcasts,
or simply rest. Doing nothing,
getting enough sleep, taking care of yourself
sometimes is enough. To be a good artist, you need to live a good life. This does not mean to be happy everyday or to make
something creative everyday. It simply means that you let
your heart lead the way, and sometimes all
your heart wants to do is sit on the sofa
and watch a good movie, and that is totally fine. Besides, as artists and writers, inspiration
is everywhere. For example, the
light and how it hits a certain object during
a specific time of day, the way someone eats
their breakfast, a sound that the wind
creates in a certain point when you stand in a specific
spot, things like this. Never underestimate the
power of the ordinary. But if you are looking
for inspiration, here are a few tips. You can do research
about the crisis, look into the details, read everything that you can about this topic or a
certain aspect of the topic. Listen to different perspectives on the topic from
different kinds of people and see if you can carve out a
story from there. You can also look within and analyze your emotions
or the reactions to your emotions and then
create something that releases those emotions or uses them to craft
something else. You can also talk with
family and friends and listen to their opinions
about the whole topic, if this is a safe space
for you to do so. Maybe someone has
a story to tell, or somebody has an idea, or something that they
say just sticks with you. If you're still uninspired, my next lesson are five exercises that
help you get started.
6. Exercises: Now that we have talked
about why writing is important and how
to get inspired, I have five different
exercises for you to try out and maybe get started
with your next project. In the examples I will show you, I will use the climate crisis as my topic of choice
for this example because it is a crisis that
all of us are currently going through and it is
also a topic that is very near and dear
to my own heart. But of course, you can adapt these exercises to
whatever crisis is currently most
important to you and whatever crisis you
want to work with. Take a crisis and imagine three different outcomes
from the current situation. Create art on at
least one of them. For example, a poem, a painting, a short story, an essay,
or something else. You can also use this exercise, for example, as
your class project. As I said, my example
will be climate change, and the three different
outcomes are the apocalypse, action for change, or
the Planthropocene. Under the apocalypse aspect, I understand the complete
collapse of ecosystems. We will have a
silent planet with no animals, insects, birds. There will be hunger and there will be a
lot of suffering, death, and misery. This is, of course, the
worst-case outcome. Then I have a middle-ground
outcome that I named action for change in
the lack of a better term. For me, what I mean with
that is that there is a raising of awareness, that there are
genuine solutions, and that there's
also acceptance of the things that we
cannot change anymore. That there's tolerance for different types of situations and different types of problems. That there is a
lot of community, people coming together,
especially young people. The youth is getting more
power and the youth are like a leading part in
this as they are already, to be honest, and that nature
becomes the priority and there's a lot of support for everyone no matter
the circumstances. Then I have a third
outcome that I named the Planthropocene, which is basically a
green planet full of fresh air and fresh
food for everyone. The forests which are in
biodiversity returns. Exploration is back on the menu but not as like we are
exploring different countries, but we are exploring
different kinds of natures and different kinds
of living with natures, and that there is peace. Of course, climate
change is very, very complex and can have a
billion and one outcomes, but these were just
three different outcomes that I thought of
for this exercise. The poem that I created based on the topic of climate change and different outcomes from it, you will find in the
projects down below. Exercise number 2. Take an emotion
you're feeling right now and find as many synonyms, related words, or rhymes as possible depending on what
area you want to improve on. Or if you are an
artist that paints, associate each emotion
with a color and use the outcome as a color
palette for your next piece. Repeat the exercise with the opposite emotion
once you're done. When I think of the
topic of climate change, one of the main emotions
that I do feel is anger. I used anger and I
personally looked for related words and
synonyms for anger. The opposite emotion,
which would be the next step for me
in this exercise, is to do the same process but with the emotion
of being calm. If you could talk to someone
that is not affected by the crisis or if you had to explain the situation
to a child, what would you say? Which metaphors would you use? For my example, I
think I would use terms like the earth is hurt, people are being unfair to
animals and to other people, and we are taking away what is not ours in
the first place, and that everything
is connected like the inside of a computer or the roots of a
tree or spider's web, like this depends
a little bit on who the person is
I'm talking to, which example I would use here. But that everything
is connected. I will try to explain this. I will try to explain that
people are afraid of change. The emotion that I
will try to bring across is urgency but also hope. Exercise number 4 is a question I would
like you to answer. It is, if you have the power in the world to change one thing, anything you like but
only one single thing, what would you do and what consequences would
that change have? I came up with three
different answers for this exercise
because I wanted to show you that you can go very different routes
with this exercise. Whatever comes to your
mind first go with it because this is what
your gut is telling you. But for example, I
came up first with making people more compassionate and then going from there. What effects would that have? But this would be a
very emotional change. But you can, for example, also change something political. For example, in my example, maybe I would revolutionize
the food industry. Or you can, for example,
also say, okay, I want to change something locally or
something geographically like infusing the
land back movement in America and handing the land back to
indigenous people. But if I have to choose one, I would probably choose the first one because
I also think it is the most interesting
one to follow through in terms of what
consequences would that have. Exercise number 5 is for
when you do not want to write or create
inspired by a crisis. Imagine an actual door that appears and you walk through it. Behind the door is the
world you imagine, a world where the crisis you're affected by does not exist. How would this world look like? Write it down or create
it with your paintbrush. As a visual artist, you can bring that open
door itself to life and show like just a glimpse
of what is behind it. As a writer, you can describe
the experience of walking through that door
and arriving in a different version of reality. In my case, I think it will be a Planthropocene with a hint
of magic and some dragons. I hope these exercises
helped you get inspired and get started
and got you some new ideas. If you look into the
resources down below, I have created a PDF
for you that you can download and print out
to do the exercises. If you have any questions regarding the exercises or
anything else in this class, please feel free to start a discussion in the
discussion board down below.
7. Using The Right Terms: Now that we've talked about
the benefits of writing, as well as getting
inspired and motivated, I wanted to make
sure that you are using the correct
terms when writing. When a crisis is your inspiration even
for a fictional piece, please keep in mind
that in a lot of cases, other people are affected too, which means you have
to do research. I know this can be
a bit of a downer, especially after I
have just showed you those exercises and you
feel the motivation kicking in and you
just want to get going and get to the paper. But when it comes to crisis, research is completely crucial, and it needs to be
done properly because one wrong word can ruin
your entire piece. I do not say this
to frighten you. I'm simply trying
to make you aware. For example, if you want to
talk about climate change, the example that I've
been using throughout this class to explain
my concepts to you, you will have to look deeper into the issues of capitalism, of the oppression of
indigenous people, and other social justice issues. Because you cannot talk about one without talking
about the other. If you do so, you need
to do the right terms. You need to always respect other people that are involved or that you are talking about. Phrasing is very important
here because some terms are appropriate
and some are not. Here, it is important to first listen to perspectives
and accounts from the people that
you might be talking about or that might be
involved in the whole concept, and listen to what
they have to say in order to respectfully
represent them or respectfully present
the whole issue in a way that it
doesn't exclude them. To use a different example
if you, for example, write about the damages
of a hurricane, it's not enough to just write about the damages and
the misery it's brought. You also need to look into why the damage was
the way it was, why the hurricane
happened the way it did, and how it did affect
different types of people in various ways. Yet another example, if you want to write
about the pandemic, you need to inform yourself
as best as you can about the science that
is currently available, and how the pandemic affects different people
differently depending on their social circumstances. Especially the
bigger the crisis, the more complex it gets, and the more research
you need to do. If you write for change, if you write to dismantle, you first need to question
your own belief system, your own language, and your
own lack of knowledge. In order to step out
into the world with it, you need to be
open-minded and willing to listen first and speak later. It is important to engage with experts in their
fields and own voices accounts of injustices or disasters in order to
create something out of it, even if it is just for
a fictional piece. If you just write escapism, which as I said, is
completely valid, you of course do not have to
do this type of research, but it never hurts to
be aware and know more. It is always good to
use the right terms for different people in
different circumstances. To summarize, when you
write inspired by or about a crisis that does not only affect you personally
and no one else, it is important to
do research and use the correct terms and
information to craft your story. In my next lesson, I'm going to talk you through why your voice is important.
8. Why YOUR Voice Is Important: So far we have talked about
the benefits of writing, how to get inspired even within a crisis or even by
the crisis itself. We have also discussed
the importance of the correct phrasing and
dwelled on research. Now, I would like to look deeper into why you should write about a crisis or create something that offers
an escape from it all. [MUSIC] You might ask yourself, why does my voice matter? I'm just one of many, so many other people have already talked about heartbreak, climate change, or other issues. Am I just adding to the noise? Is my writing really
that important? Will it make a difference? Why should I even bother
to share my thoughts? Let me tell you, all
artists have been there. We all have doubted
our abilities, our value or the
significance of our work. But let me tell you, just because someone else has already talked about
a certain topic, or tackled it in
a specific style, does not mean that your work is not of value and not need. Have you ever listened
to a new love song on the radio or on your streaming service
and thought to yourself, a song about love? I remember that there is one other artist has
written a song about love, which means this new artist
is nothing but a copy cat, and this song is invalid and shouldn't have
never been published. No? Then the same applies for your art
and writing as well. Just because a topic has
been discussed before, does not mean your
own approach will not add to the conversation, will not touch people, or will not be valuable. Each and every
single one of us has a different experience
of life, love, loss, crisis, and the
environment, and therefore, our perspective when
writing is also unique. Will it be inspired by others? Yes, I hope so. As I just mentioned
in the last lesson, you need to do your research. As artists and writers, we should always seek
out other art and other writing in order
to be inspired and to educate ourselves and to
get better at our craft. But as long as you didn't
one-on-one copy someone's work, it is still your unique voice that you are bringing
to the table. The most important
part of it all, is that it comes
from your heart, and how could your
heart be insignificant? If you have done
the proper research and really gave it your all in terms of imagination or if it is
a non-fiction story, your precise analysation and
description of the truth, it will be good enough. Maybe your specific point of view will help others
on their journey. About that, I will talk
in the next lesson.
9. Helping Others: We are at our final lesson. You know why writing
is beneficial for you. How to get inspired by a
crisis or despite a crisis. We have done some exercises
to get you started. I've talked to you
through the importance of research and I have addressed why you should
write about these topics. In this final lesson, I would like to add to the last lesson
that I just mentioned and open up your perspective towards the possibility
of helping others. When it comes to crises, no matter how big or small, we need to come
together to solve them. When someone's heart is broken, they need to be comforted. If someone got hurt, they need a safe space to heal. If there are issues within
your community or your family, communication needs to take place and solutions
need to be found. When global crises take over, we need to address them, do our part, and pressure the big players to do
their part as well. The key element here
is coming together. You might be sitting on
your desk all alone, feeling lonely and like your work will not
make a difference, I already spoke in
the last lesson about how that is not true. But let's look deeper into it. I will use climate change
as an example once again, to make it a bit more
easy to understand. But you can change
these examples to whatever crisis you
want to write about. If you write poetry about nature and the loss
of biodiversity, you could inspire readers
to look deeper into conservation and active action towards the future for animals, plants, and humans alike. By sharing your emotions
within just a short poem, you will touch upon
their heart and shake it awake
softly but certain. If you write a
nonfiction book about a specific aspect of the crisis, unheard stories or how
specific social justice issues are interconnected with
the climate emergency, you educate people and offer
a resource for activists. If you write a
fiction novel about a world with similar
issues than ours, you inspire people
with either hope or fear to compare the
fictional world with the real world and
take action towards a better future or at least further away from
a dystopian one. Fiction can often be dismissed, but it can become
a powerful tool. The Handmaid's Tale, Animal Farm, or the books by Becky Chambers are
just some examples of this type of fiction. Finally, if you write
about something that has absolutely nothing to do with the crisis
you're experiencing, then you still offer an escape for other
troubled minds who may have difficulties surviving this crisis emotionally
and mentally. Escapism is so valid and so necessary because in order to
battle any type of crisis, we need to also take care of ourselves and our mental health. You see, if you put your
unique perspective out there, no matter in what shape or form, it will be heard. Even if it does not reach a massive international
audience or it will change
regulations and laws, the butterfly effect can still happen even if you just
reach one single person. Even if it doesn't have
a butterfly effect, by helping one person
along their way, you're helping all of us and
whenever you are in doubt, please remember that one song
that just hit different. Even though you have heard countless songs about
the same topic before, there is always this
one song that just hit right into your fields because it helped you
through a tough time. It described exactly
what you were feeling or it just made you
feel a certain way. You can do the same
with your art as well.
10. Final Thoughts: Let's summarize this class. Writing has many benefits, such as stress relief and other health benefits through
emotional expression, improved communication skills, and it can also be a way of
escaping reality for a while. There are four
different types of crises you might encounter. Personal crises such as
heartbreak or health issues, community crises that
affect a group of people, local crises that affect towns, regions, or nations, and finally, global crises that affect humanity and
the planet as a whole. Art can become crucial within crisis for multiple reasons, to offer an escape, to inspire, to motivate, to help,
or to document. You can find inspiration within challenging times by looking
deeper into the issue by searching for solutions or
by using exercises such as the ones I showed you to let
your imagination run wild. It is crucial and necessary to do research if you
write about or inspired by a crisis that affects other people
as well as yourself. In order to understand the
complexity of the issue, use the right terms and
contribute to the solving of the crisis and not
the worsening of it. Your unique experiences
and perspectives as well as your specific
writing style are valid and important and should
always be seen as powerful even when it does not reach an audience
of millions. By creating art
within a crisis or inspired by problems
and sharing this art, you can help others in many different ways
such as feeling seen, getting inspired, or finding an escape to better
cope with reality. If you want to keep
these lessons at hand, you can always re-watch
this course or go down to the resources and download
the PDF I prepared for you. Now, I would really like to
see your class projects. No matter how big or small, if it is inspired by a crisis, it's personal one or global one, or whatever it might be, please do not hesitate to share. I am so excited to see and
read all of your projects. Because coming together is such a crucial part of
dealing with crises, please remember to also
leave some love and kindness on the projects
of your classmates. If you want to learn
more about me, feel free to visit my website, check out my YouTube channel
or look into my books [LAUGHTER] and if you want
to learn more about writing, please also feel
free to check out my other Skillshare classes. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you feel
inspired and you learnt something new and if you have
any feedback whatsoever, please feel free to leave
a review down below, or to ask me any type of question in the
discussion board. Now, go and write, go and create because your
voice is so, so valid.